The Master and Margarita is a ribald, carnivalesque satire featuring  the Devil, true love and a gun-toting cat. It was written in the darkest days of the Soviet Union and became an underground sensation, being first openly published in 1966. There are many editions available in the UK, some of which have included some very scary cats on the cover.

Five Leaves book group is an open group. You are welcome to attend once or as often as you like! The meetings are free and refreshments are provided. All we ask is that you read the book in advance. There’s always a (rather) short introduction by one of the group or a member of Five Leaves staff to get the discussion going.

Let us know you are coming on events@fiveleaves.co.uk

You can source the book wherever you like, but in the lead up to the book group we discount the relevant book by 15%.

Anarchism is a much misunderstood and much misrepresented theory. Rejecting the chaos of capitalism and statism, it seeks to create the order of libertarian socialism, a free society of free associates. To discover more, please join Iain McKay (author of An Anarchist FAQ) for an exploration of libertarian ideas by means of six male and six female anarchist thinkers and activists.

Over two nights, the lives and ideas of the founding fathers and mothers of anarchism – including Michael Bakunin, Peter Kropotkin, Louise Michel and Emma Goldman – will be discussed and their continuing relevance highlighted.

Emma Goldman 

Week one

Founding Fathers, 1840 to 1940: Pierre-Joseph Proudhon; Joseph Dejacques;  Michael Bakunin; Errico Malatesta; Peter Kropotkin; Rudolf Rocker

Week two

This event/class/group continues on Monday 4th February. We would encourage you to attend both sessions!

£3.00 on the door, including refreshments.

Let us know you are coming on events@fiveleaves.co.uk

St Kilda – the last Scottish island to be evacuated – in 1930, at the request of the remaining 36 islanders – is a World Heritage Site, a military base, a nearly inaccessible dot in the Atlantic. The people who lived there made their living from and lived off fishing and sea-birds, the latter harvested from climbing cliffs. The end came with crop failure, fatalities at sea and fatal illnesses among the islanders, whose numbers had steadily declined after WW1. The island had been occupied for two millennia,  with islanders living in much the same way, using similar tools and eating a similar diet. The island is now the permanent home to a small military base, masses of seabirds, a flock of native sheep and is a place of mystery. The last native islander died two years ago, having left his island aged eight. Few people are able to go there.

This talk by the illustrator and travel writer John Stuart Clark will show slides, including many taken on his own visit to St Kilda.

£3.00 on the door, including refreshments. Please let us know you are coming, on event@fiveleaves.co.uk

Anarchism is a much misunderstood and much misrepresented theory. Rejecting the chaos of capitalism and statism, it seeks to create the order of libertarian socialism, a free society of free associates. To discover more, please join Iain McKay (author of An Anarchist FAQ) for an exploration of libertarian ideas by means of six male and six female anarchist thinkers and activists.

Over two nights, the lives and ideas of the founding fathers and mothers of anarchism – including Michael Bakunin, Peter Kropotkin, Louise Michel and Emma Goldman – will be discussed and their continuing relevance highlighted.

Louise Michel 

This event/class/group continues from 28th January We would encourage you to attend both sessions!

Founding Fathers, 1840 to 1940: Pierre-Joseph Proudhon; Joseph Dejacques;  Michael Bakunin; Errico Malatesta; Peter Kropotkin; Rudolf Rocker

Week two

£3.00 on the door, including refreshments.

Let us know you are coming on events@fiveleaves.co.uk

We are pleased to again welcome a team of creative writers from Japan as part of the Japan Now arts project.

Readings will be in Japanese and English.

Full programme and ticketing arrangements to be announced

Milkman sold more copies at Five Leaves in the five days after the Booker announcement than any of the previous winners over a whole year, possibly lifetime sales.  It’s set in Northern Ireland, at the height of the Troubles.

This novel is not difficult, though it demands attention. Here’s the Guardian review: www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/31/milkman-anna-burns-review-northern-ireland

Five Leaves book group is an open group. You are welcome to attend once or as often as you like! The meetings are free and refreshments are provided. All we ask is that you read the book in advance. There’s always a (rather) short introduction by one of the group or a member of Five Leaves staff to get the discussion going.

For the avoidance of doubt, Anna Burns is not attending!

Let us know you are coming on events@fiveleaves.co.uk

You can source the book wherever you like, but in the lead up to the book group we discount the relevant book by 15%.

Nottingham Rainbow Heritage is an annual celebration of local LGBT success – whether they be football teams, organisations of Trans’ youth, LGBT-friendly workplaces and many more.

Stalls. Free refreshments, Presentations.

Come and talk to us at the Five Leaves bookstall

This event is free with no need to book, but check the event timings as this post is written in November 18!

States of Independence is a book festival in a day, attended by several hundred people, featuring around 25 stalls and 25 events, organised by Five Leaves and the Creative Writing Team at De Montfort University.

All events are free and unticketed. There are usually readings, book launches, industry panels – all from the world of independent presses, independent writing, independent thinking.

Come for an hour or come for all day.

We have a cafe on site and all the events are free.

Wendell Berry lives and works on his farm in Kentucky. In these essays he writes about nature, the food we eat, the land we live on. He lives without a computer, slowly… Berry is often mentioned as a modern-day Thoreau and as a prophet.

Our book group is open, come for one meeting or as many as you like, and is always the last week of the month. It’s free, and refreshments are provided. For the avoidance of doubt, Wendell Berry is not attending! There’s always a rather short introduction by one of the group or a member of Five Leaves’ staff to get the discussion going.

All we ask is you read the book in advance.

We don’t mind where you source the book, but in the lead up to the book group meeting we offer 15% off the title in question.

Let us know you are coming on events@fiveleaves.co.uk

Advance notice of Nottingham Poetry Festival. Readings by well known poets, poetry in pubs, poetry in performance. Bookfair.

Full programme to follow

Feminist Book Fortnight is a Five Leaves initiative, launched in 2018, when fifty independent bookshops and other organisations set up talks, discussions, book launches, poetry readings and socials to celebrate feminist writing. The shops were from all over Britain and Ireland. At time of posting (November 18) 28 shops have already committed to taking part in 2019, as have the four women’s libraries in Britain.  One shop is in Italy!  More are signing up all the time.

Organisation is decentralised, with Five Leaves providing a website, social media, press support and print.

Feminist Book Fortnight is supported by the Booksellers Association

Please contact bookshop@fiveleaves.co.uk if you are an independent bookshop, a literature promoter, library or any other organisation wishing to take part

Five Leaves is pleased to work with the RCN (Royal College of Nursing) trade union to celebrate nurses’ day.

Full details to follow

Can’t tell you the venue, can’t tell you the speaker (though we know!) but this is the annual formal lecture from UNESCO City of Lit in Nottingham. Mark the date. Reveal later…

Five Leaves is pleased to be a partner in this conference, with stalls and events.

Full details to follow

www.nottingham.ac.uk/conference/fac-arts/clas/transnational-radical-film-cultures/index.aspx

Lowdham Book Festival ends its twentieth year with its traditional “last Saturday”, including the region’s biggest book fair, lots of free talks for adults plus a children’s programme, a cafe, and a day out in the country (well, ten miles from Nottingham).

The main festival is organised by The Bookcase in Lowdham, but the last day by Five Leaves.

Contact us for stall and event details.

Full programme in due course

Celebrating – not uncritically! – Graham Greene’s writing, and his time in Nottingham. He was converted to Catholicism here, at this Cathedral

Speakers include David Belbin and Michael Eaton

Five Leaves’ bookstall

Full details to follow

The third Nottingham Radical Bookfair… 30 tables from new and second hand booksellers, publishers and organisations and a full supporting programme of talks.

Stalls already booked by Five Leaves, Nottingham People’s History, Northern Herald Books (second hand), Anarchist Communist Group, Ex-Libris (second hand), Verso Books, Notts and Derby Labour History Society, Morning Star, Revolutionary Praxis, Jermy and Westerman (second hand), Sparrow’s Nest Archive, Global Books Marketing, Pluto Press… More to add.

In 2018 we had talks on diversity in children’s literature, trade union organising, Kropotkin, architecture in the former Soviet union, working class poetry, Asian women in Britain, anti-racist scholarship, Stewart Hall, street choirs and Peter Gabriel. No idea yet what we will do in 2019, but save the date!

Cafe on site. The cherry crumble last year was memorable.

A Bread and Roses event

Nottingham Radical Bookfair is trade union supported

The event is free, including the talks